Synthetic radioisotope
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A synthetic radioisotope is a radionuclide that is not found in nature: no natural process or mechanism exists which produces it, or it is so unstable that it decays away in a very short period of time. Examples include technetium-99 and promethium-146. Many of these are found in, and harvested from, spent nuclear fuel assemblies. Some must be manufactured in particle accelerators.[1]
Production
Some synthetic radioisotopes are extracted from spent
Some synthetic isotopes are produced in significant quantities by fission but are not yet being reclaimed. Other isotopes are manufactured by
Many isotopes, including
Uses
Most synthetic radioisotopes have a short half-life. Though a health hazard, radioactive materials have many medical and industrial uses.
Nuclear medicine
The field of nuclear medicine covers use of radioisotopes for diagnosis or treatment.
Diagnosis
Radioactive tracer compounds, radiopharmaceuticals, are used to observe the function of various organs and body systems. These compounds use a chemical tracer which is attracted to or concentrated by the activity which is being studied. That chemical tracer incorporates a short lived radioactive isotope, usually one which emits a gamma ray which is energetic enough to travel through the body and be captured outside by a gamma camera to map the concentrations. Gamma cameras and other similar detectors are highly efficient, and the tracer compounds are generally very effective at concentrating at the areas of interest, so the total amounts of radioactive material needed are very small.
The metastable
Treatment
Several radioisotopes and compounds are used for
Industrial radiation sources
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Footnotes
- ^ "Radioisotopes". www.iaea.org. 2016-07-15. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
- ISBN 978-3-540-59469-7.
- ^ "Radioisotope Production". Brookhaven National Laboratory. 2009. Archived from the original on 6 January 2010.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ISBN 92-0-101103-2.
- ISBN 978-92-0-106908-5.
- ^ "Production and Supply of Molybdenum-99" (PDF). IAEA. 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
- ^ Greenblatt, Jack A. (2009). "Stable and Radioactive Isotopes: Industry & Trade Summary" (PDF). Office of Industries. United States International Trade Commission. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.
- (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.
- ^ Branch, Doug (2012). "Radioactive Isotopes in Process Measurement" (PDF). VEGA Controls. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
External links
- Map of the Nuclides at LANL T-2 Website Archived 2004-04-04 at the Wayback Machine